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Morality: Socrates Vs. Kant

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Through research, famous philosophers like Socrates and Kant believed that morality was highly associated with rationality and selfishness. For example, Socrates believed that to make a moralistic decision, a person must not take his or her emotions into account. To elaborate, while making a decision or a choice, the person must be in his or her clear state of mind, meaning they cannot allow their anger or sadness to be the drive behind their decisions. The decisions have to be made based on facts, reasons and consequences that not only affect themselves but the surrounding people as well. Similarly, for Kant who originated the instrument: Categorical Imperative (CI) had comparable ideas. According to the Kantian Ethics website, before making
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Kantians believe that the rightness or wrongness of an action does not depend on the consequences, but on whether they fulfill a duty. They must act in a way that will produce the greatest overall amount of good in the world. In this view there is no obligation to give money to a homeless person, but it is the right thing to do. Kant’s supreme moral principle is the categorical imperative. The categorical imperative is a moral law that is unconditional for all agents because of intrinsic value.

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Before Kant, moral philosophy was dominated by Crusius’s sense of divine morality which stipulates that the will of a person has to be in accordance with the will of God. Wolff’s notion of moral perfection adds that we should strive to procedurally achieve our sense of moral obligation to the degree that the ends or effects of a particular action are based on our ability to calculate perfection. Kant concludes that Wolff’s postulates are virtually impossible in attempting perfection in 1764 in his Prize Essay ,‘‘now I can with little effort show how I became convinced, after much thought, that the rule ‘do the most perfect action which for you is possible’. ’’ (Prize Essay.2:229) Crusius and Wolff’s arguments essentially appeal to the un-provable

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Henry Kravis once said,”If you don 't have integrity, you have nothing. You can 't buy it. You can have all the money in the world, but if you are not a moral and ethical person, you really have nothing. Morals are the principles on which one 's judgments of right and wrong are based. The morality of a person define what a person’s decisions will be, or could this be influenced by other things.

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Andreas Vesalius was born in 31st of December, 1514 and lived until 15th of October 1564 (In Zakynthos). His parents were Isabel Crabbe and Anders Van Wesel. In 1544 he married a woman named Anne Van Hamme and at 1545 also named Anne. He wrote one of the most famous book in human history named “De Humani Corporis Fabrica” which taught many people about the basics of the human body and its tissues. He is often called the “founder of human anatomy”.

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Kant also thought it was possible for pure reason to discover objective ethical truths. Kant believed that ethical truths must be categorical, universal, and be the product of reason. Kant’s categorical imperative states that a person should always act in such a way that they could will that act should be a universal law. This means that Kant thought that it was best to do the right thing, even if the person didn’t want to. This view of ethics focuses on what is right to do.

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Virtue is defined in many ways. Some say that it comes from the Latin word ‘virtus’, meaning virtue or courage, which comes from the other Latin word ‘vir’, which means man, meaning that virtue is the qualities of a man, such as courage. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines virtue as, “conformity to a standard of right [and/or] a particular moral excellence” (Merriam-Webster 899). With all these definitions floating around, it is hard to determine what virtues really is and what it really means to have virtue. In Plato’s Meno, Socrates and Meno discuss the definition of virtue and whether it can be taught.

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The American University in Cairo Philosophical Thinking Law vs Morality Ahmed El - Omla Dr. Jason Blum November 16th, 2015 According to Socrates, it would never be justified to break the law, Socrates believed in the idea that if you live in a place you should abide by its laws. Socrates would say that those who created the laws have a better understanding of what is right and wrong.

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The categorical imperative was the unconditional moral principles that one’s behavior should accord with universalizable maxims which respect as ends in themselves, the obligation to do one’s duty for its own sake and not in pursuit of further ends. Kant has three proposition of morality, first is and action must be done from a sense of duty it is to have moral worth, we cannot do something because we want to, but it is our duty really, we must be unhappy to truly do a moral action. Second is an action done form duty derives its moral worth from the maxim by which its is determined. It depends on the principle of volition. Third is the duty is the necessity of acting from respect for the law.

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While Socrates has no concrete list of what counted as virtue many of the things he believed were important to the huuman life were things he considered signals of moral virtue such as courage and justice. Socrate believed in courage and this was shown through the case of him being executed and the courage he exemiplified to the people leading him to be sentenced to death. The idea of implimenting justice and believing in it was key point in Socrates work and by it playing a role what he believed was virtue and knowledge. Even when questioning people about virtue one of the many questions he would ask them was “What is Justice?” (Solomon, Higgins 47).

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In Plato’s The Republic, the philosopher attempts to explain the process of time and decay, their connections to the evolution of regimes, and how inevitably bad this all is for the people of the city. In an Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose by Immanuel Kant, he discusses that time is a tool for man to evolve until their destined end, and as he discusses in the First Thesis of his essay. Both of these philosophers discuss the idea of a something that could be called a utopia, but they both also acknowledge the fact that this ideal society is impossible. In The Republic, Plato talks about this ideal society, where the ruling class are the philosopher-kings, and although he believes in this “ideal society”, he also acknowledges

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In the dialogue Meno, Plato asks the question, “What is virtue?” Socrates proposes the following hypothesis: if virtue is knowledge, then it is teachable also if it is not, it cannot as it is a gift from the gods. The next point to consider, then, is whether or not virtue is knowledge. Socrates demonstrates the theory of knowledge with a slave by giving a geometrical question and asks, “How do you double the size of a square”. Even though this question does not prove what ‘virtue’ is, it does demonstrate the steps of knowledge.

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Anuradha Singh Ethics Fall 2014 Kant “And since morality must be derived solely from the property of freedom, one must show that freedom is also the property of the will of all rational beings.” –Kant Most of what Kant talked about was about morality and partly about freedom with morality. Kant was a philosopher of ethics but David Hume was the one that had “who awakened me from my philosophical slumber” (Solomon, Martin and Vaught), which at that point he wrote his volumes. Kant says that morality is not to be confused with self-interest (Solomon, Martin and Vaught). What he means by self-interest is doing anything for your own advantage and not caring for other people.

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Socrates is a key person of Athens and when he was charged guilty with the possibility of being executed, he wasn’t worried. Rather, he stayed true to himself and stuck to what he believed in. Socrates tries to protect the citizens of Athens by not angering the gods, “that you may not sin against the God by condemning me,” (104). Being a “gift to you [citizens of Athens]” Socrates wants people to think about what will happen to the city once he is gone, whether it will be better or worse (105). However with the way he states he is needed by the city, he tries to convince people that they will sin by going against him.

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Hyejin Jang Professor Writing DED 8 April 2016. 4. 7. Kant’s ethics differs from utilitarian ethics both in its scope and in the precision with which it guides action. In The Categorical Imperative, Kant emphasizes that human autonomy is the essence of morality.

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Virtue ethics started drawing attention since the modern ethics exposed its limitation and reconsideration about the priority was needed. Contemporary ethics focus on “What we should do”, instead of “What kind of person we should do”. In consequence, the moral codes in modern era solely emphasizes moral duty and rules, while neglecting personality and character of individuals. Virtue ethics support the traditional criterion that consider moral virtue and personality of individuals as important. The virtue of good engineer includes creativity, good understanding of culture, morality, and capability of communication.

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